Diet Sodas: They can make you hungry and thirsty

Like water, diet sodas are low in calories. But the resemblance ends there. They contain two ingredients that are weight-loss trouble: caffeine and sodium.

Sodium makes you retain water, leaving you feeling bloated and fat. Get on a scale the day after drinking a few diet sodas, and you’ll actually weigh a few pounds more because your body is retaining water.

Caffeine boosta the secretion of insulin, a hormone that lowers your blood sugar, leaving you feeling hungry. Caffeine also is a diuretic, increasing the output of urine, which makes you thirsty. Hungry and thirsty – not exactly the best combiation for weight loss.

Tips in drinking sodas:

1. Two is the max. Keep your soda consumption to two or less a day.
2. Go for the “no”. Opt for noncaffeinated sodas.
3. Water it down. Make sure to drink a glass of water with (or right after) each soda so that you flush the sodium out of your body and quench your thirst.